


Home Sweet Home

by Codexfawkes



Series: Connections [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Dubious Science, F/M, Howard Stark's Massive Crush on Steve, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 05:58:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15285177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codexfawkes/pseuds/Codexfawkes
Summary: “You like her because she’s a Hufflepuff just like you Brucie,” Tony teased.“I like her because she calls you Iron Ass and threatens to start a robot uprising with your own bots if you don’t get some sleep every once in a while,” Bruce countered with a grin. Steve chuckled, immediately regretting it when his ribs protested the movement.





	Home Sweet Home

**Author's Note:**

> Yup, I wrote another time travel fic. Only this time I flipped it.

Steve walked through the lower levels of the London SSR building at loose ends. He and the Commandos had been on R&R for two weeks now after three months of non-stop missions. They were waiting on clearance to start the next wave of offensive missions against Hydra bases and the brass was dragging their feet approving the plans. The first week had been great, it was nice to have real beds, showers, and be consistently dry. It was also fan-fucking-tastic to not have to flip a coin to see who got stuck with Falsworth’s horrible night farts. At least when Steve kipped with Bucky the worst that happened was some platonic snuggling. That at least was familiar after so many years of Bucky climbing into bed with a sick and shivering Steve trying to warm him up. The other guys had seen them spooned together a couple times and ribbed them about how best their friendship was. When they’d finally stopped laughing and explained where the habit came from, the other guys didn’t believe it until Steve showed them the picture from his file of what he’d looked like before.

The upside to being on base was spending time with Peggy and Howard. The downside was he saw way more of Stark than Peggy.

“Rogers, get that pert backside in here!” Howard called out. Steve sighed and shook his head fighting off a smile. Howard loved to try and embarrass him like that if Steve didn’t know how much Howard loved the ladies he’d think his friend was really sweet on him. Steve picked up the pace and trotted into Howard’s lab where he was tinkering with a weird looking machine.

“What’s that thing?” Steve asked curiously. Howard looked up at him with a beaming smile, clearly delighting in his friend’s interest.

“Steve this is going to revolutionize travel as we know it. If I can get it to work the way I think it can, people will be able to travel anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds,” Howard told him excitedly. Steve burst out laughing.

“Howie, how in the hell could that ever be possible?” Steve wanted to know, the nickname slipping out and making Howard scowl.

“Don’t you doubt me, Rogers, you don’t get to do that,” Howard snapped poking him in the chest with an angry frown. Steve smothered a grin and raised his hands in surrender.

“Hey, what the hell do I know, I’m just a dumb kid from Brooklyn. Explain it to me,” Steve coaxed with an earnest and engaged smile. Howard’s shoulder’s relaxed and his easy smile slid back onto his face.

“You’re not stupid Steve, you’re just not me. Now, what this thing will do is it will take an object and break it down into molecules then shoot those molecules to an identical machine and put the object back together. Eventually, I should be able to get it safe enough for human travel,” Howard explained proudly.

“Sounds kinda dangerous, what if something goes wrong? You gotta be careful pal, I don’t want anything to happen to you,” Steve said placing a concerned hand on Stark’s shoulder. Howard’s manically proud grin softened into a sincere smile.

“Don’t worry Steve, I know what I’m doing.”

Seconds after those words left Howard’s mouth a high-pitched whine emanated from the machine in front of them. Steve had just enough time to shove Howard back before bright light filled his vision. The last thing Steve heard was Howard screaming his name.

“ ** _Steve!_** ”

 

The next thing Steve became aware of was that he was laying down. Something was tickling his palms … pine needles. Slowly other sensations came to him, the warmth of the sun on his face, the distant cry of birds, the sound of running water. His eyes slowly opened and Steve sat up taking in the forest around him. Every muscle in his body tensed as he realized Howard’s machine had transported him to a forest somewhere. He was alone, unarmed, and possibly behind enemy lines. If he was lucky, and Steve rarely was, he was still in England. If not … well, things could be pretty bad. He slowly got to his feet, stretching his senses to their limits. Steve stood up straight and looked around for any signs of life, then suddenly he heard it. The sound of a child laughing. He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips upon hearing the joyful sound. Hopefully, that meant he’d landed somewhere friendly.

“Bang bang, stop da bad guys! Look, Mama, I stoppin da bad guys like Daddy!” the young voice cried out. Steve felt something in him relax at the American accent the kid had. It was unlikely he was behind enemy lines if the child was American. He moved a little faster and soon a small cabin came into view. He was clearly looking into the backyard where an area had been cleared of trees and the owners had lain down thick, soft grass. A small wooden box about three feet square held what looked like soft sand and had kids toys scattered in it. A wooden picnic table sat near the house and an awning provided the table with shade. A couple of wooden lounge chairs were off to the side and a red and white checked quilt was laid out on the grass. A little girl of about four was playing in the yard jumping around with a little toy shield similar to his own and pretending to beat up bad guys complete with sound effects. Her long brown hair was plaited in two messy braids, her red sundress revealed dirty lower legs as if she’d been playing a while. Steve smiled when he saw her, she reminded him a lot of Bucky’s little sister. At the moment the green French doors opened and a woman came out carrying a pitcher of what looked like lemonade. Steve paused in the tree line, he didn’t want to startle the woman while she was carrying something glass. He must have made some kind of noise though because all of a sudden, the girl was dropping the toy shield and running right for him with a happy squeal.

“Daddy!” she screeched joyfully. “You’s back daddy, is Unca Bucky wit you?” she asked attaching herself to his legs happily. Steve froze in shock. Daddy? Uncle Bucky?

“Steve, what’s going on? You just left like fifteen minutes ago with Bucky, how come you walked back? And why are you in your old uniform? How are you in your old uniform?” the woman asked walking over to him with a perplexed smile.

“We gonna play soldier daddy? Is Unca Bucky and Taunty Nat Nat gonna pretend to be bad guys ‘gain?” the little girl asked excitedly.

“Sarah honey, Aunty Nat isn’t coming until tomorrow remember?” the woman prompted with a smile, running her hand fondly over the girl’s head.

“Oh yeahs, ‘cause Lil’s was naughty an buildeded a bot wi’out per-shim-amons,” the little girl said with a nod.

“Permission, she did science without permission,” the woman corrected gently. “What’s rule number one baby?” she asked bending and scooping the little girl into her arms.

“No sce-ance wi’t-ow pershimons,” the girl recited proudly.

“That’s right baby girl, now go play with your shield while I talk to daddy,” the woman directed before giving her daughter a smacking kiss on the cheek and setting the girl on her feet. Once the girl was a few feet away she looked at the shell-shocked Steve with concern in her eyes. “Steve, what’s going on? Why are you back and wearing your dress uniform? Not that I don’t love you in this, it’s sexy as hell, but …” she trailed off biting her lip with a confused frown. After a second her face cleared and she tilted her head to the side with an impish smile that for some reason reminded him of Howard. “Unless this is your latest gambit in the let’s toss the birth control and make a sibling for Sarah discussion? Because baby, Mama is all about climbing you like a tree while you’re wearing this,” she practically purred stepping forward to wrap her arms around him. Steve tensed in her embraced and fought the impulse to shove her off. He had no idea what was happening but decided to play along until he figured it out. Maybe he hit his head and this was all a weird dream. Steve wrapped his arms around her and let himself relax into the admittedly beautiful woman.

“Are … are you ready for another baby?” he made himself ask, going along with her reasoning. He felt her shrug and looked down to see her smiling up at him.

“I think so, I mean, Sarah’s already four I agree we don’t want there to be much more of an age gap than five years. We both know pretty much as soon as I’m off the pill your super swimmers are going to knock me up, so I’m not worried about it taking a long time to get pregnant again. There’s never really going to be a perfect time, but … yeah. We were gonna wait until I finished my pack but, what the hell, let's toss the fuckers,” she grinned her hands sliding down and grabbing his backside. Steve flinched, taking a large step back from her involuntarily and found himself staring at her confused face. Before he could think of an excuse the door opened again and he saw **_himself_** walking into the yard.

“Can you believe we got half way to town before I realized I forgot to grab my wallet?” the other Steve called out laughing at himself. The woman sprung away from the man she’d just been embracing and looked between the two men in utter confusion.

“What the hell?” she blurted out before grabbing her daughter and cuddling her close, keeping her away from both men.

“Daddy, why is dere two a yous?” Sarah asked confused.

“Oh …” the other Steve said from the doorway looking at himself across the yard.

“I’m really confused,” Steve said staring at his doppelganger who had a wife and kid.

“Get used to that feeling kid,” the other Steve said with a wry grin. Before Steve could make heads or tales of that he felt a weird tugging sensation around his middle and then the bright light was flashing again.

“Steve, Rogers, you okay? Open those baby blues,” Howard said with an edge of panic as he lightly smacked Steve on the cheek. Steve opened his eyes, shooting into a seated position with a gasp. “Oh, thank fuck,” Howard breathed.

“What the fuck was that?!” Steve exclaimed scrambling to his feet.

“Well, it looks like my machine may have … possibly … sent you … a little bit into the future. Not sure how far exactly, but what matters is your back,” Howard said trying to soothe the rapidly breathing man in front of him. Steve frowned and shook his head in denial. The future he saw, a gorgeous wife, adorable daughter, Bucky still spending time with him and apparently married too. It was everything he ever wanted, except.

“She wasn’t Peggy,” Steve said with a frown. Howard titled his head at him in confusion, reminding him strongly of the woman that had just been in his arms.

“Who wasn’t Peggy?” he asked.

“I … I saw … I had a wife and a daughter. Nice vacation cabin in the woods. Bucky was married. It … it was perfect, except …” Steve trailed off with a sad shake of his head. Howard sent him a sympathetic smile.

“Except you weren’t married to Peg,” he finished softly. Steve shook his head. Howard looked at him curiously. “Who was she then, do you know her?” Stark wondered. Steve shook his head again.

“Never saw her before in my life. She … she was beautiful though. Smart, had a mouth on her,” Steve chuckled sadly. “Kinda reminded me of you actually. You don’t have a sister, do you?” Steve asked with a rueful smile. An odd expression Steve couldn’t parse flashed across Howard’s face and then it was gone.

“Nope, I’m an only child. My parents aimed for perfection and got it right on the first try,” Howard smarmed. Steve laughed before his face fell into a sad frown. “Look, Steve, even if what you saw really was the future, which honestly it could also have been an alternate dimension, that doesn’t mean it’s definitely going to happen. The future is always in motion, we make it what we want. Maybe you and Peggy can make it work, maybe you can’t, just … just don’t give up on her because of what amounts to a dream. Okay?” Howard asked. Steve took a deep breath and let it out before nodding, his smile more sincere this time.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Nothing is written in stone,” Steve agreed.

“Glad you’ve seen reason, now help me smash this thing to pieces and burn the research. No one should have this technology, not even me,” Howard told him. Steve heartily agreed and started pulling the thing apart as Howard gathered all his notes. Still, that night Steve fell asleep with the image of an adorable little girl fighting fake bad guys and a beautiful woman with a gap-toothed smile who held him close and told him she wanted to have his baby.

 

Seventy years, six months, and four days later …

“Cap, you’re gonna love it here. Jarvis is at your disposal for tracking down Frost Pop number two, and here in Avengers tower, we have all the cool toys,” Tony bragged leading him into a large lounge area. “Thor is off planet at the moment, but his lovely lady scientist and her buxom assistant are in-house. Lewis is feisty, but she’s mostly housebroken,” Tony joked as he flopped onto one of the couches. Steve stiffly lowered himself onto the soft surface. He was mostly healed after his fight with Bucky on the helicarrier, but he was still sore.

“Who’s Lewis?” Steve asked suppressing a groan of relief as he settled onto the couch.

“Doctor Foster’s assistant, you remember her from right after the Battle of New York, they stormed the tower looking for Thor,” Tony said. Bruce wandered over and sat at the end of the couch Tony was sprawled out on.

“Steve had already taken off by then remember? I stuck around a couple days until you could get me a flight to Central America, it was the day after Thor took Loki back to Asgard that they showed up,” Bruce reminded him.

“Oh yeah, huh, so you haven’t met her yet,” Tony said grinning.

“No, who is she?” Steve asked looking at Bruce, figuring he was more likely to get a straight answer out of Banner.

“Darcy Lewis, she’s Jane Foster's assistant. She started out as an intern and got prompted to a paid assistant when Thor moved them here after what happened in London. She’s a nice kid, a little too into social media but she’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Bruce explained with a smile.

“You like her because she’s a Hufflepuff just like you Brucie,” Tony teased.

“I like her because she calls you Iron Ass and threatens to start a robot uprising with your own bots if you don’t get some sleep every once in a while,” Bruce countered with a grin. Steve chuckled, immediately regretting it when his ribs protested the movement.

“Nothing wrong with being a Hufflepuff Tony, loyalty is pretty damned important these days,” Steve commented with a wry smile.

“Fair enough,” Tony chuckled with a grin, tickled that Steve could follow the Harry Potter references.

“Damn right, Hufflepuff represent!” a feminine voice called out. Steve froze, he knew that voice, he still heard it in his dreams. After a long moment a woman rounded the couch he was sitting on and dropped next to Bruce with a grin. “You must be Steve, I’m Darcy Lewis it’s nice to finally meet you,” she said with a welcoming smile. Steve’s face flickered through several different emotions before settling on cautiously happy.

“Doll, I’ve been waiting seventy years to meet you,” Steve greeted with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Hufflepuff represent! There is a sequel percolating in my brain, no idea when that'll happen though.


End file.
